The majority of this past month was dedicated to finishing up a book on my city, Houston, due out in 2022. Lydia and I spent an inordinate amount of time running around town and researching everything, and though it’s been really fun (and educational in so many ways), it has distracted me from this project.

I also started another Finder’s Course challenge (this time a full 3 months), a course that claims a 70% enlightenment rate. It’s a bold claim, but it did help me reach new highs and exposed me to many techniques I hadn’t heard of before. It also forced me to do techniques I had, for whatever reason, ignored in the past. I’ve already reached some really interesting states, and would like to try to record them using some biofeedback-style devices.

With the manuscript in, I hope to really focus on this site this month - I’ve got a lot of backlog to publish.

Interesting Stuff

• An interview with Dr. Roy Baumeister, by Giovanni Dienstmann, whose work on meditation I really like [Live & Dare]

• Would Plato Tweet? The Ancient Greek Guide to Social Media [BBC}

• If Shinzen Young were to teach one focus technique, what would it be? [Tricycle]

• Training like a Kenyan runner [Tracksmith]

• The “Protégé Effect” — how teaching people is a better way to learn [Time]

• A guide to studying more effectively [Psyche]

Research

• Evidence for team flow states [article | research]

• Old research on how Sponge Bob negatively impacts executive functioning in children [article]

• Structured problem solving to promote sleep [research]

• Meta study on which anti-worry strategies work best [article | research]

• Different types of affirmations work differently - interrogative questions can work better [research]

• Hand gestures used by instructors can help students mentally organize information better [article | research]

Social

• Tips on how to write better essays [Reddit]

• How to deal with nocturia (the need to urinate in the middle of the night) [Reddit]

• How to use meditation to help with social anxiety [Reddit]

• The lazy man’s guide to meditation practice [Reddit]

• How to deal with feelings of unworthiness [Reddit]

• How to train meditation closer to reality [Reddit]

• How to make challenges more effective [Reddit]

Miscellaneous and Esoteric

• A course on bioelectric qigong

• The most recent Critical Mind, Embodied Spirit podcast -” What on Earth is Qigong?”